Happy New Year!Can you believe it’s already 2010? Days are becoming longer, and WOW, there are deals out there for locals like never before! Cirque du Soleil is celebrating 25 years with a Nevada Locals Appreciation Offer. Buy one ticket and the second ticket is just $25! The deal includes $25 off another Cirque show and 20% discount in the show boutiques. Visit www.cirquedusoleil.com/locals or call 800.351.7045.

Totally free stuff is listed on www.vegas4locals.com and www.lasvegasleisureguide.com, as well as discount coupons for shows, tours and shopping! The best recreation deals in town are short jaunts from us to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, just $5 per car to visit, and Valley of Fire State Park, $6 per car. As our days become longer and the weather balmier, pack a picnic and prepare to commune with Nature Southern Nevada Style.

Consider taking your Significant Other to Hemenway Harbor, Lake Mead for special evenings at the Las Vegas Boat Harbor or Lake Mead Cruises for Valentine’s Day.

Neat Nevada Notes: Great Basin National Park is 77,000 acres of Mother Nature’s unfettered splendor. Most of the Park’s running water is trapped within the Great Basin and unable to find a way to marry with the ocean, creating shallow salt lakes and eventually disappearing into the dry high desert air. Spectacular is an understatement for mountain peaks soaring above 11,000’ throughout the park and Wheeler Peak exceeds 13,000’! Bristlecone Pines, considered the oldest living “non-clonal” organisms, are estimated to be no less than 5,000 years old. The Bristlecone Convention Center in Ely houses a beautiful sample and staff provides friendly, knowledgeable area information at 150 Sixth or 800.496.9350. A bit less than 300 miles northeast of us, near Baker, Nevada and the Utah border, this National Park was established in 1986. The Visitor’s Center is on SR 487 at Baker, the gateway community. SR 488 is the access road to Lehman Caves for a ranger led cave tour, Wheeler Peak and various trails to high mountain lakes and the majestic Bristlecone Pines. For details, 775.234.7331, or www.nps.gov/grba.